Truth to Materials
by KMvancouver
Summary: Modern day fic. Will and Elizabeth live in suburban England. When new neighbours move next door, Will's antics get the best of him. OneShot WE JA. This is my first fic - PLEASE R&R!


Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is my first story, and I'd like to thank all the encouragement from HTR, as well as Mrs. Bea for being my beta..anyways on with the story..

Truth to Materials

It was a cold February morning at Truth to Materials. The rain from last night had ceased, but the dark clouds still lingered. It was nine in the morning, with no sign of a sunrise to greet the day. As far as the residents of Colchester knew, it was a beautiful day awaiting them, as soon as the haze had passed. However, seeing as this is Colchester, England, the chance of a fair day was highly absurd. Come springtime, the resident's chance at such a day would improve by a fraction. It was those adequately fair Springs that Will Turner loved most about his beloved Colchester.

Will smoothed the clay body of a pitcher ordered by a client. If there was one medium Will loved to work with, it was the simple, foolproof clay. Mostly because he had the assurance that he would not mess up an order, but as well as he loved to work with malleable mediums. Truth to Materials was his own studio, on the corner of Queen and High. His sculptures were unique and intriguing, and have caught the attention of posh collectors from London and Paris. He wished one day to open up a studio in metropolitan London, or any other modern city where the public would understand and appreciate all of his work to its fullest.

Will hummed a tune to himself as he engraved his initials on the bottom of the pitcher. WT. All that needed to be done now was to bake, then galze in the kiln, but he would need to let the clay dry first. He set the pitcher aside, and looked around his store. On a day like today, he would not expect a customer until noon at the earliest. Truth to Materials was open to the public to come and watch Will at work. Its name, Truth to Materials, is a term in Will's field of work which he had first heard at a convention in Amsterdam. It signifies that a sculptor keeps all imperfections of his work, and incorporate it all into the final product. Through Will's eyes, truth to materials is a saying which reflects on his life.

At the back of the store, stood an oddly shaped block of alabaster. It would be a human torso once he was finished with it. Will picked up the block of white stone and brought it to his work table. He began to chisel off small areas at a time, when another tune was stuck in his head. Will recognized it immediately. It was from the movie he has watched with his son William the night before. Lord of the Rings, Will thought it was called. He liked the movie, especially those elf archers who were always dead accurate with their shots. Will began to hum louder, and went to his small coat closet. He pulled out a wire coat hanger, pointed it like a bow, and fired his imaginary arrows. _"Will Turner: Warrior Elf" _Will thought to himself. It was still early, and Will had full confidence that nobody would see him. Up, and down, and all around, Will was playing around his store unlike any other 35-year old man would have the courage, or dignity, to do so.

Will didn't hear the front door open, and as he spun around, he stopped dead in his tracks. A customer stood gaped mouthed in front of him. Will fired one last time, at the man, before letting the coat hanger drop to the ground. He did not recognize the man, as did the man not look like the type to be walking around his shop. He was older than Will, wearing an old band shirt and torn jeans, and a red cap. Maybe he was American? Will coughed.

"May I help you with anything, sir?" Will asked, trying his best to sound professional.

"Uh, no," The man looked at Will, and Will shot a confused look back at the stranger, "You're Will Turner, aren't ya?"

"Y-es.." Will nodded, and slowly moved back toward his desk.

"Miss Lizzie's man?" the man inquired.

"Yeah." Will spat out. How did this man know Lizzie? His wife. Mrs. Will Turner. At that point Will had finally made it to his desk, where he had a picture of Elizabeth and himself, at their wedding. He loved Elizabeth, so very much. What business would she have with the man standing in front of Will now?

"She's a charming young lady, eh?" The man grinned.

Will picked up his sharpest chisel. He narrowed his eyes at the man, who was wandering around his store, sure to break something. The man looked over at Will, holding a pair of small marble figurines. "Did you make these?"

Will did not answer. It soon dawned on him that Elizabeth had been busy the past few nights. Will had just thought that she had joined another women's club, perhaps a book club this time. Seeing as he was always taking their son William to rugby practice, Will was never around to see where exactly she was going out. What Will couldn't come to terms with, was that Elizabeth was, in fact, _socializing_, at the least, with this man.

"Sir? Ye still with me?"

Will still clenched his chisel. Fury and rage pumped through his veins. Whoever this man was, he did not like him, not at all. He wanted him out of his store. Will was slowly walking around the desk, waiting for the opportune moment.

"Sir?"

There it was. Will's opportune moment. He sprung towards the man, chisel pointed at the throat. The man's eyes grew wide.

"You know what, " barked Will, "stay away from this store. And my wife."

The stranger remained silent. He stood there and stared at Will, with the same look of confusion as when he first walked in. Will was confused. Was there something behind him? He looked around. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary. _"What am I doing again?" _he thought, _"Oh right - Threatening a stranger with my chisel!"_

The man finally spoke, "Mr. Turner?"

"What!" snapped Will.

"I think I'm your new neighbour.." his voice trailed.

Will was confused, he looked quizzically at the man as he continued.

"..We moved here three days ago. Umm..Elizabeth introduced me and my girlfriend Ana around town.."

Will still pointed the chisel as the man told this. "Continue." Will said flatly.

"..My name is Jack..I just came by to invite your family to dinner Friday night. Elizabeth said I should stop by.. She said we'd hit it off together..Is..is Friday good?"

Will nodded, "Yeah, Friday is good.."

Jack smiled. "Alright, Friday at seven thirty..I guess I'll see you then."

Will forced a smile as Jack walked out of the store, shooting one last confused glance at Will.

He could feel his face turning red with embarrassment. _"What a first impression.."_ he thought. Will sighed as he walked back to his desk, chisel in hand.

* * *

Elizabeth was thrilled to hear that Will had accepted Jack's invitation to dinner. Ever since she and Will had moved into their small house on Marlowe Way, Elizabeth had encouraged Will to socialize as much as possible. As much as he tried to convince her, Elizabeth couldn't stand the fact that Will is, in fact, quite solitary. Elizabeth had grown up a London city girl, and had people surrounding her at all times, whilst Will grew up in the village of Beadnell in Northumberland, a small fishing village with a population of only 500. Will thought he had gotten better with people over the years, but still had a far way to go to meet's Elizabeth's expectations. 

"When are we going over, Will?"

"Jack said tomorrow evening, at half past seven."

"Alright!" Elizabeth beamed, "Isn't Jack a nice guy?

"Nicest man I've met in a while." Will said.

"He told me people back in Plymouth thought he was a criminal! I guess looks can be deceiving, but still! Who would have the nerve to jump to such conclusions?" Elizabeth stated, exasperated.

"Beats me.." Will mumbled, "Probably just some unsociable idiot who wouldn't know a good man if they met face to face.."

"Exactly!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

Will dug his hands into his pockets, and shuffled his feet on the ground. He couldn't help but chuckle.

"Love," Elizabeth started, pulling on her coat, "I'm off to the grocer's. I need ingredients to make my famous apple pie for tomorrow night!"

"Alright, I think I'll be off to bed now. It's late Lizzie.."

Elizabeth kissed her husband on the cheek. "I'll be back soon."

* * *

The following day at work, the alabaster torso was starting to take shape. He tapped his mallot into the end of the chisel, another piece of rock chipped off of Will's work. For a solid two hours, Will had been chiseling away alabaster debris, which soon revealed the first quarter of a man's torso, hidden and bound once in a square block. Will had gotten the torso order from a Lord Beckett of Haverhill. Why he had ordered it? Will could only imagine. He highly doubted Haverhill had a Lord, but this Beckett was going to pay Will a nice sum for the piece. Besides, Will thought, if this Beckett did turn out to be Lord of Haverhill, then he could not have any minor imperfections on the finished sculpture. This particular piece was not being done true to materials, much to Will's dismay, however Will was pleased no discolourations of imperfections had been found in the rock yet. 

It wasn't until six fourty five that evening that Will had chiseled out the entire torso. There was still a lot of work to be done, but Will felt good that he had accomplished so much that day. He got up from his desk, and pulled a small maquette out of a drawer. He brought the scaled version of the torso over to Beckett's order, and compared to two. Their overall shapes were nearly identical, which made Will was happy that he would only have to make small alterations to his finished piece.

Will sat back down at his desk. He felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. His art will be famous someday. At least he wished. He looked at his picture of Elizabeth, taking in all of the beauty she had been blessed with. Will knew how lucky he was to be married to her. Out of all the men in the world, Elizabeth had chosen the shy and awkward Will Turner. He knew if anything would happen to cause them to break up, all of the men in Colchester would be knocking on Elizabeth's door. But nothing ever would. He was her Will, and she was his Elizabeth, and nothing would ever change that. Will then thought back to when he first met Elizabeth, which would be how long? Sixteen years? Sixteen years well spent.

Will had a job working a chairlift at a small mountain resort in Switzerland. He had never skied nor snowboarded in his life, but the mountain officials had left him with a snowmobile. Will worked a chairlift that was used only for a double black diamond run, known as "Dangereux". He could only guess what that meant. Will had to admit, working a chairlift was pretty boring. All he would do is sit in a small cabinesque room beside the chairlift, where all of the controls were held. Sometimes, he had to speed up the chairlift, sometimes he had to slow it down, and, on rare occasions, he would stop the chairlift completely. One perk, Will thought, was that from the control room, a large, panoramic window gave him a prefect view of the ski run above him. As much as it gave him a laugh to watch the novices fall time and time again, Will would usually find one good skier to watch ski effortlessly down the run.

On one particular day, from the beginning of his shift to the end, a young blonde lady skied only the "Dangereux". Will knew this because of her neon pink ski suit she had been wearing. Such an outfit was all the rage back then. When Will watched the pink blur speed down the run, he had never seen anyone ski so fast, or so well. Her turns were sharp and precise, yet they were smooth and seamless, and looked so effortless. Will had been told only the experts could make things look easy. But above all, it was her speed that amazed Will. How could anyone keep such control while going at such a speed? He timed her once, only taking 1:08 minutes to complete the run. Once the blonde in pink would reach the bottom, Will would speed up the chairlift twice as fast in order to watch her ski again. At the end of Will's shift, the young lady continued to ski the run, over and over again. He went to ski rentals, and picked up a pair of skis and poles.

Around fifteen minutes later, Will stood at the top of "Dangereux". He peered around the steep slope, and spotted the girl in pink. She was already half way down the run, but Will didn't mind. He thought he knew enough about skiing after over hearing ski lessons every Friday on the mountain. Keep skis parallel, and point skis into a pizza shape to stop. Will thought it sounded easy enough. He pushed off with his ski poles, and was off skiing for the first time.

The girl in pink had passed Will seven times once he was only half way done the run. Will had much more respect for Olympic skiers since he had started to venture down "Dangereux". When he started to go faster, he would gingerly point his skis inwards, and think, _"Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! Must remember pizza!"_ He had made it three quarters of the way down, when his heart started to race. The blonde skier in pink was skiing right in front of him. Will's feet quickly got out of the pizza position, and started to gain speed. As much as he tried to slow down, he couldn't. Faster and faster Will went, screaming "PIZZA!!" over and over again. He was gaining on the blonde skier in pink, trying to tell her to get out of the way. It wasn't until Will was only a mere foot behind her, that she heard him screaming. She turned her head, for just a second, and saw awkward Will Turner grab onto her shoulders, and tumble off the run together.

"Hi.." Will said cheerfully, once the two of them had stopped rolling. He was short one ski and both of his poles.

"Hello," the girl managed to say, clearly in pain, "I think I've broken my leg!"

Will stared at her, not saying a word. He was still trying to take in the given situation.

"Well could you please get me some help?" the girl asked, annoyed.

"Ugh, sure, right away.." Will didn't know what to do. All of this time working on a mountain, and he had never seen anyone injure themselves.

Help arrived twenty minutes later. The girl was admitted to hospital, and Will visited her every day. Will could not just disappear after the accident. He promised himself that he would help the blonde skier through her recovery.He found out her name was Elizabeth, and that she lived in England. Through the physio and countless hours together, both Will and Elizabeth realized how much they cared for one another. They married one year later.

Will smiled as he recounted the ski event. He took his chisel and chiseled off a few more stray pieces. He looked at the clock. It was only seven thirty, he still had time to work. Wait. Will hit an awkward piece of the alabaster, that was sure to leave a mark_." Seven thirty?"_Will thought, _"Why should I remember seven thirty?"_ Then he did, in fact, remember why. Jack. He and Elizabeth were going to Jack's house that night, and Will should be there right now. _"Oh shit."_ He threw on his coat, and ran outside, only to bump into James, the butcher who owned a deli next to Truth to Materials, and one of Will's only friends.

"Will! Where are you off to in such a rush?"

"Dinner party. At Jack's. I forgot," Will looked at James, "Elizabeth is going to kill me!"

James nodded as he watched his friend hurry off, "Good luck, boy!"

As Will drove home, he knew he couldn't go to his house. If Elizabeth hadn't left yet, he would be scolded for being late. If he went to Jack's house, then he be scolded by Elizabeth too for being late, and embarassing Elizabeth of arriving alone. What was he going to do? He parked his car at the other end of the street, and waked towards his house. Will couldn't tell if Elizabeth had left or not. He cursed under his breath, and made his way over to Jack's house. Once again, Will had no clue whether Elizabeth was there or not. He put his ear up against the front door to see if he could hear anyone talking. He couldn't hear anything. Desperate, Will looked around for any other way to find out where his wife was. That's when he saw the open gate to Jack's backyard.

Will walked around the side of Jack's house, trying to find another way of finding Elizabeth. Will looked up, and his mind went racing. A large paned window stood about two feet taller than Will. Will tried to jump up and down, but there was no such luck of reaching the window. Will had to find another way of getting to the window. _"Think Will, think!" _Finally, Will got an idea. He went back to his house, and crept into the backyard. As he rummaged around in the dark, he finally found what he was looking for. When Will's son William was ten, he had asked for a trampoline in their backyard. However, Will and Elizabeth's yard couldn't fit a full-sized trampoline, so they ended up giving William a miniature trampoline. Will rolled it from his house to Jack's, and placed it in front of the window.

As Will started to bounce up and down, getting higher and higher, he could clearly see inside Jack's living room, at least for a moment at a time. He bounced up again, seeing the back of a woman. Was it Elizabeth? He couldn't tell. He jumped up to the window once more. This time he got a front view of the mystery woman. Whoever she was, it certainly wasn't Elizabeth. Will assumed it must be Ana. Will looked up at the window, and noticed a frame surrounding the window, about three inches thick. If Will could hang on to that frame, then there would be no need for him to continue to bounce up and down. Will jumped higher and higher with every bound, and once he had enough height, Will grasped onto the frame, his head smudged right up against the window. It wasn't until ten seconds later that Will realized that his mere fingers could not hold his weight. As he fell to the ground, his hand smeared down the window.

Meanwhile, Jack had just poured himself a glass of wine. As he sat down in his living room recliner, along with a copy of the local newspaper. He smiled as he recognised some of the names he read, including the Turner's son for his rugby team winning last weekend. Jack looked around his new house. He and Ana loved absolutely everything about it, especially the spacious living room with its large windows. If Colchester ever had a proper sunrise, their living would provide the best view. Besides outside, of course. He looked over at the windows, and saw a blur pass in front of it. Was he seeing things? Jack started to watch the window, when suddenly another blur flashed before it. And another, and another. What was it? He looked down at his glass of wine quizzically, then looked back up at the window, only to see a permanent face pushed up against it. Again Jack started at the face with his mouth wide open. _"Is that...Turner?" _Jack asked himself. Just as soon as Will's face appeared, it suddenly fell one last time, with his hand dragging down Jack's window.

Will cursed to himself as he lay on the ground on the side of Jack's house. He had fallen at a funny angle on his leg, which now throbbed with every pulse. It took him some time for him to pull himself up, but he managed to limp away from Jack's house. Will hobbled over to his house, and realized that his injured leg wasn't so bad after all. Now, Will had an excuse for being late, he just had to come up with one. As he fiddled with his keys at the door, he heard someone run to the entrance, and open the door. Elizabeth. Will leaned in the archway to relieve the stress in his leg.

"Lizzie, I did something funny to my leg today.." Will started, "But we can be on our way to Jack's house now. I'll be fine!" He forced a grin.

Elizabeth fixed her eyes on Will. "You didn't try skiing again did you?" Will shrugged. "Well," Elizabeth started, "We should be on our way now!"

Elizabeth helped Will over to Jack and Ana's house. As Will was about to ring the doorbell, he looked over at his wife, noticing that she had forgotten something of hers.

"Uh Lizzie," Will asked, "Should you be going back to get that pie you were working on?"

Elizabeth laughed, and shook her head. Will looked baffled. "Why not?" he inquired.

"I called James because you weren't home at regular time. He told me everything. I called Jack and said we'd have dinner tomorrow."

Elizabeth pulled Will into a kiss, and rang the doorbell. Will felt a sense of embarrassment as he realized that there was no need for all of his stealth spying on the new neighbours. But it didn't matter. Elizabeth was holding his hand for support, as he heard people inside coming to the front. Jack and Ana were smiling when they answered the door.

_

* * *

__If you've read to here, then I thank you for reading. I would LOVE some feedback on this story - I'm so new to this - But PLEASE review - It would mean the world to me!_


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